Does anyone know how to run a Java application -- not an applet -- on the Mac? We have Java programmers here at work and we need to test how well the applications work. I've been sent a .jar file, and I have no idea how to even get it running. Also, does anyone know where I can find some sample Java applications to try? Thanks very much for any help.

ezylstra

Aug 20, 1999 11:18 AM

Go to apple.com/java. Lots of basic information on using Java on the Mac.

Download and install MRJ 2.1.4.

Read the READ ME files. In particular, pay attention to JBINDERY.

Think about subscribing to Apple's Mac Runtime for Java maillist.

ejalbert

Aug 20, 1999 01:17 PM

Actually, JBindery is part of the MRJ SDK, not MRJ itself. You can find the SDK at <http://developer.apple.com/java/>. It's an app that allows you to build a double-clickable Java app from a .jar file or inidividual Java class files -- just drop the .jar on the app, type the class name in the right field, and save the settings in the folder that you want to run the app from (don't click the Run button from within JBindery unless your .jar file doesn't depend on its directory being set properly). That'll give you a standard Mac application that you can double-click to run.

More JBindery documentation is available with the SDK and in pages online that you can find at the Java developers' page mentioned above.

Oh, and if you're doing Java development on the Mac, join the MRJ-Dev mailing list. It's a really terrific list that'll answer most any problem you run into while trying to get things to work correctly cross-platform. Information about that is (surprise, surprise) also on the Java developers' page.

Hope this helps,
Eric
Intern, Apple MRJ team

ejalbert

Aug 20, 1999 01:19 PM

Argh...that doesn't display the link that I put in the last message. The page that you want is <a href="http://developer.apple.com/java/">http://developer.app le.com/java/</a>. Click on the "MRJ 2.1.4" link at the top of the page to go to a page where you can download the SDK.

-Eric

treddy

Aug 20, 1999 01:24 PM

You will also have to download the MRJ SDK. This is where the application JBindery is.

Once you download both the MRJ and the SDK, the easiest way to do it is to run JBindery and point to the JAR file and indicate the class you want to run. If you need to pass additional parameters, you can. And you should save the settings so you can just double click on the settings file (or if you save it as an app, just run the app).

Good luck,
Tarun

gbrooker

Aug 20, 1999 01:39 PM

While Apples JBindery is the ulimate solution, and anyone developing for MRJ should use it to package their software, there are a couple of other solutions just to get a jar running.

My own :
- RunThatJava
http://www.vega.nl/guy/java/RunThatJava.html

or also :
- JarRunner
http://www.jera.com/jarrunner
(You will also need the jar2jax program, included on the same web page,
to set the main class and classpath information.)